modding an AC500 to house a Tunze Nano DOC skimmer

First, Thanks to DaveB for the great AC500 filter. It was perfect to use for a mod like this.

I'm sure that this has been done before, but I thought I'll share anyway. I got rid of my sump/refugium and had the Tunze Nano DOC skimmer in my tank. Apart from it being another piece of equipment inside the tank taking up real estate, it was also inconvenient since the little screw at the back that adjusts the airflow into the skimmer would snag on the lip of the frame and pull off the top cover. Moreover, with a powerhead agitating the surface, occasionally water would get into the skimmer from the top and it would make an irritating wwhistling sound. So I modded an AC 500, and feed the AC 500 with the outflow of a rio 50 (feeding a phosban reactor). This allows for a very low throughput area for the skimmer, and since its a passive skimmer, i figured it would either do good/cause no harm.

Anyway, you just need 2 pieces of acrylic (or glass whatever), one cut to a length of 25.3cm (~9.9inches) and the other cut to 8.2cm (~3.2inches). The width of the sections can be anything reasonable, maybe 2-4inches.

Here is a pic with the pieces attached by epoxy (I dont like using silicone to glue plastic/acrylic together)



The skimmer when placed in the chamber sticks out by about 1cm from the top edge of the chamber. The reccomended water line for the skimmer is about an inch below the top of the skimmer chamber (not the top of the neck). So the long piece should sit about 1.5cm or so below the top edge of the aquaclear (here, I did something goofy, I initially wanted to put in baffles inside the chamber, thats why only a section of the piece is cut so that it sits 1.5cm below the top edge). The other piece is used to section off the place where the intake tube would go into the impeller chamber. I used epoxy inside and outside (a little paranoid about leaks).

Cutting the lid of the AC was horrible, the plastic melted onto the dremel bit and hardened as I was shouting abuses at it.

Here are some pics of the mod in action, a shot from the side:



A shot showing the additional space utilized to stick in a large piece of live rock (just because it was there), a bag of carbon and topped off with a wad of cheato (no independant fuge light, the cheato gets light from the regular daytime lights), maybe I'll stick in a fuge light.



And here is a pic showing the flow out of the AC.




Sorry for the long post about a simple mod.

Edited by sshm - December 13 2006 at 4:35am

Glad it worked out for you....